Context
The National Strategy for Smart Territories (Estratégia Nacional dos Territórios Inteligentes – ENTI) is a catalyst for the digital transition, within the context of the digital society, creativity, and innovation, as a strategic challenge. Similarly, this strategy is also a relevant public policy instrument for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.
National, regional, and municipal challenges are distinct; however, there are cross-cutting trends, such as an increasingly ageing population requiring a growing supply of healthcare, or global warming leading to a greater recurrence of extreme environmental events and rising sea levels.
It is this set of challenges that calls upon local, regional, and national decision-makers to increasingly reinforce the purpose of providing services efficiently, inclusively, and with quality.
It is essential that Portugal has a strategy that serves as a benchmark for achieving the vision of smart territorial development defined for 2030, bringing together a set of guidelines to accelerate the digital transformation of Portuguese municipalities. A national strategy is aimed at smart and connected territories that provide inclusive and sustainable economic development, with interoperable services centred on citizens and businesses. ENTI intends to promote and accelerate digital transformation at the local level, extending the concept of smart cities to all Portuguese territory, for the creation of a smart nation.
Objectives
ENTI’s objective is to accelerate the digital transformation of Portuguese territories, promoting a more efficient, sustainable, and transparent public administration. By transforming data into actionable insights, the project enhances the decision-making capacity of public authorities, addressing challenges such as mobility, climate change, social cohesion, and innovation.
The initiative addresses the need for a unified strategy and mechanisms that foster collaboration between stakeholders, including local authorities, the private sector, academia, and citizens. The objectives include:
- promoting the acquisition of urban management platforms by municipalities, to support decision-making based on evidence;
- promoting creation and use of data-sharing services by local and central public administration;
- supporting the development of reusable digital twins to support public administration entities in operations and management activities;
- creating a reference for interoperability and data standardisation;
- developing tools for analysis, policy simulation, and monitoring;
- promoting the creation of a territorial intelligence community, for sharing knowledge and best practices between the different stakeholders (public administration, private sector, academia, citizens);
- promoting the strengthening of digital skills and improvement of decision-making processes based on concrete data.
Direct beneficiaries include territorial administrations, technology SMEs, startups, and research centres, creating a positive impact on the entire population.
Implementation
ENTI implements its objectives through an articulated set of 16 strategic initiatives and 31 recommendations that adapt to different local realities. The strategy is structured on a robust technological architecture divided into several platforms:
- Digital twins create prototype models that evaluate strategic areas.
- A Public Policy Dashboard and Local Government Observatory offers tools to support central and local public decision-makers through data analysis and policy simulation.
- A Smart Territories Portal serves as a central hub for sharing good practices, action plans, and results, fostering a dynamic Community of Practice.
- Urban Management Platforms consolidate data for territorial management and monitoring.
This integrated approach includes technical training actions, public–private partnerships, and dissemination of success stories, ensuring that all territories, regardless of their size or digital maturity, can evolve progressively and sustainably.
There is a technical support and monitoring structure, made up of a permanent team from Agência para a Reforma Tecnológica do Estado – ARTE – to provide technical knowledge, coordination, and effective and continuous monitoring, to guarantee the successful implementation of ENTI at national level.